Method of purifying garlicky wheat



July 3, 1923.

J E GASKILL METHOD OF PURIFY ING GARLICKY WHEAT Filed May 25, 1919 INvzwroa JOHN E GAS/(ILL 6 4 IIIJATToRA/E Patented July. 3, 1923.

JOHN E. GASKILL, OF ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI.

METHOD OF PURIFYING GARLICKY WHEAT.

Application filed May 23, 1919; Serial No. 299,289.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, JOHN E. GASKILL, a citizen of the United States, andresiding at St.- Louis, Missouri, have invented a new and usefulImprovement in Methods of Purifying Garlicky Wheat, of which thefollowing is a specification.

This invention relates to a method of purifying grain of its impurity,and more particularly for a method of purifying garlicky wheat.

The wild onion or garlic (alliuin vineale) often occurs as an impurityin wheat; in fact, in some parts it is the worst wheat pest. I becauseit imparts a distasteful garlic flavor to the flour, and this flavor ispresent even though the percentage of garlic in the wheat is very small.Now wheat grains and green or undried new unmatured wild onion andgarlic bulblets are so similar in size and shape that separation is notpossible with the sieves in the usual fanning mill; moreover, in thenormalstate of the wheat and green garlic, the grains and bulblets arenot only of the same size and shape, but the difference in specificgravities is not great enough to permit their separation by blowing in atanning mill.

Various methods have been attempted to separate the garlic from thewheat, but the only method which has obtained any measure of success atall is one in which the wheat with its green garlic is driedartificially, thereby causing the garlic to lose its moisture and thusdiflerentiate considerably in specific gravity from the wheat so as topermit removal of the garlic in a fanning mill. This method does not,however, succeed in insuring removal of the garlic from the wheat, onaccount of the varying quantities ofmoisture in diflerent garlicbulblets, due to their different stages of maturity in a given wheatmass; so that after even severe drying, it is found that many of thegarlic bulblets are found to contain considerable moisture, while otherbulblets in the same lot are shriveled and brittle. The result is,therefore, that even when this method is carried out very carefully,there is still left considerable garlicin the wheat. This method ismoreover open to the objection that in drying the green garlic to It isa very objectionable impurity,-

remove the moisture therefrom, the wheat is dried with it and is,therefore, unfit for milling purposes so thatthe wheat must again betempered back to its normal state to lncrease its moisture to the properpoint Great care must be taken in tempering the wheat back to the normalamount of moisture; and in order to restore the moisture content of thedried wheat to normal, which is so'important for good milling, the wheatmust be tempered several times and must then be stored a considerablelength of time between each tempering in order to allow the moisture topenetrate into the wheat kernel. Moreover, the drying process unless"very carefully carried out, and unless low temperatures are employedrequiring, there-- fore,considerable periods of drying, has an injuriouseffect on the wheat and is liable to destroy its germinating qualities,thereby rendering the wheat unfit for seed purposes. Some of the objectsof this invention, therefore, are to provide a method of purityinggarlicky wheat, whereby the wheat will i be purified of its green garlicimpurity tosuch an extent as to secure a wheat of high purity, but whichis not open to the objectionable features attending the prior methods. I

Further objects will appear from the detail description, and in thisdescriptionreference will be had to-an apparatus for carrying out themethod embodying this invention, although it is tobe understood thatthis apparatus is only described for the purposes of illustration, sinceit maybe varied without departing from the spirit of this invention. 7 i

In accordance with this invention, the grain and its impurity issubjected to a liquid, more specifically stated by dropping the grainand its impurity onto an overe I y flowing liquid of a suitable specificgravity,

which has a centrifugal movement imparted 1 thereto, and due to thedifferences in the specific gravities of the wheat and the green garlic,the garlic is caused to separate from the wheat by flotation. t

W'hileiwheat and green garlic grains are closely similar in size andshape, and while their specific gravities approach closely and mitseparation in the usualvfanning mill,it

while these similaritie sare" too close to per- 1057" has been foundthat in the proper method the differences are suliicient to permitseparation by flotation.

In the accompanying drawing, Figure l is a vertical section through anapparatus adapted for carrying out the method enibodying this invention;and

Figure 2- is a section on the line 22, Figure 1.

Referring to the drawing, 1 designates the ring of a frame supported onlegs 2. A. ring 3 has a flange 4c resting on rolls 5 in turn resting ona track 6 on the ring 1; this 3 also has a flange 6 bearing againstrolls 7 mounted on the ring 1. The flange -1- has a rack 8 with whichmeshes a pinion 9 mounted on a shaft 10 supported in abearing 11 on thering 1 and receiving power from a belt 12 passing over a pulley 13 onthe shaft 10 and driven by motor.

The ring 3 has mounted inside thereof and secured thereto a tank lhaving an inclined bottom and resting on and secured to a bracket 15closing the same and provided with a bearing 16 engaging a cooperatingbearing 17, there being interposed between the bracket 15 and thebearing 17 a washer or suitable bearing element 18 of any suit able formor construction. In this structure therefore, the tank 14 can berevolved by means of any suitable motor through the shaft 10 and theconnections heretofore described.

The top of the tank has a downwardly di rected flange 19 whichdischarges into an annular trough 2O supported'by brackets 21 on theframe 2 and provided with a discharge spout 22.

- A pipe connection 23 has an outlet 24 extending slightly below theupper edge of the tank and is provided with a controlling valve 25,whereby a suitable liquid, as here inafter described, may be dischargedinto the tank, the liquid overflowing over the outer edges of the tankand into the trough 20 and from this trough 20 into the spout 22.

Mounted on a suitable support 26 is a dis charge pipe 27 for the grainand which is provided with a cut-oif slide 28. Mounted below the openend of the pipe 27 is cone 29 supported by straps 30 from the pipe 2'?and having its apex centrally of and at the discharge opening of thepipe and having its lower end a distance of, about twelve inches fromthe top of the tank. This cone is, however, provided with ridges orgrooves 31 extending downwardly and radiating so as to guide the grainand distribute the same uniformly over the cone that it will descend ina shower into the tank.

Mounted in the bottom of the tank is a bracket 32 having shank 33extending through the bearing 16 and provided with an angular portion 34taking into an any suitable.

menses angular recess in the bearing 17 so as to prevent the support 82from turning. A hearing washer is interposed between the brackets 32 and15. A casing 36 is supported at its lower end-on the bracket 32 and issupported by straps 37 from the support 26. This casing has a partition38 extending therealong and forming a guide for the grain and thispartition is perforated. filtering in the casing are a pair of endlesschains 39 which pass over sprockets 40 atthe upper end of the casing andover guides ii at the lower end of the casing, these sprockets andguides being mounted on transverse shafts and the upper shaft havingattached thereto outside of the casing a sprocket 42 connected by achain 13 with a sprocket on a transverse shaft supported on the bearingblock 11 and provided with a bevel gear so meshing with a bevel gear soon the shaft 10. The chains 39 have attached thereto flights at?whichare also perforated. The casing 36 is open at its lower end asshownat {l8 and is provided at its upper end with a spout 49. Theleading side of the casing is provided near the top of the tank with awedge-shaped deflector 50 for the purpose hereinafter to be described.

As uming the power to be applied to the shaft 10, the tank is rotatedand the direc tion of rotation is as shown in Figure 1 that it willrotate from right to left. This also causes the chains to move in thedirection of the arrow, Figure l. The tank being filled with the liquidand the flow being controlled so as to continually overflow, the liquidwill be moved out radially by a centrifugal force, the magnitude of thisforce depending upon the speed of rotation of the tank, and theoverflowing liquid will pass into the trough 20 and will be dischargedinto the spout 22. Assuming: now that the slide 28 is open and that theunpurified wheat, containing the garlic as an impurity, is allowed todischarge, the grain and its impurity will be distrib d by the cone andwill drop onto the suriace of the centrifugally moving liquid in thetank. As the grain and its in1- purity drop into the tank, they wil besubjected to two physical actions, namely, the

buoyancy action of the liquid and the centrifugal action the overflowingand centrifu ally moving liquid. Both of these action:v will cause thelighter or more suscep tible garlic component to tend to move towardsthe rim of the tank and follow the overnowing liquid to a greater extentthan the heavier or less susceptible wheat component. it is, therefore,found that with the proper speed of rotation of the tank, the properover lowing. the proper distribution and drop the grain and its impurityand the proper specific gravity liquid, that the wheat and garlic willbe separated by fiotation, the garlic overflowing over the edge of thetank being discharged into the trough 20 and the spout 22, while thewheat will sink to the bottom of the tank. As the wheat collects on thebottom of the tank, it is taken by the elevator flights 4:7 and carriedupwardly along the casing 36, where it is discharged through the spout49. The perforated partition 38 and the perforated flights cause theliquid to drain from the wheat as it rises through the casing. Duringrotation of the tank, the deflector 50 de-, flects the material and,therefore, prevents clogging.

The liquid employed is preferably water and to enhance the separatingaction, it is desirable to increase the specific gravity of the water byadding thereto any suitable soluble substance, such as common salt andit has'been found that a specific gravity of from about 1.020 to 1.080will give good results. This specific gravity is intermediate thespecific gravities ofthe wheat and its associated garlic in the normalor green condition. However, good results can be ob.

tained with ordinary water, if the centrifugal action is increased, dueto the fact that as explained above, the separation is due to twophysical factors, namely, the buoyancy of the liquid and the centrifugalaction.

The wheat as discharged from the spout &9 can be dried in any suitablemanner and by any of the drying mediums and devices well known in theprior art, until the moisture is reduced to the proper point. It is,therefore, unnecessary to explain in detail the method of drying.

It is, therefore, to be seen that the invention accomplishes itsobjects. The separation is obtained in a simple and effective manner andpermits the employment of an apparatus whereby the operation maybecontinuous. With this method, the wheat can be cleaned of substantiallyall of its garlic and this is obtained without damaging the wheat in anyway. By dropping the wheat and its impurity at a plurality of points andcentrally onto a centrifugally moving and overflowing liquid, it is notonly insured but both wheat and garlic will become uniformly wet,thereby causing the wheat to sink and thus all becoming separated, butthis permits uniform distribution of the material upon the liquid sothat the action of separation will be a uniform one.

While there is described an apparatus for carrying out the method andwhile the method itself has been described in detail, it is obvious thatvarious changes may be made in details without departing from the spiritof this invention; it is, therefore, to be understood that thisinvention is not to be limited to the specific details described andshown.

Having thus described the invention, what is claimed is:

1. The method of purifying normal wheat of its associated green garlic,comprising, immersing the grain and its garlic impurity in their normalstates in a liquid of a suitable specific gravity so as to cause theimpurity to separate from the grain by flotation, and separatelywithdrawing the grain and impurity so separated.

2. The method of purifying normal wheat of its associated green garlic,comprising, 1

immersing'the grain and its garlic impurity in their normal states in aliquid of a specific gravity intermediate the specific gravities of vthe grain and its impurity so as to causethe impurity to separate fromthe grain by flota tion, and separately withdrawing the grain andimpurity so separated.

3. The method of purifying normal wheat of its associated greengarl1c,comprising,

dropping the grain and its garlicimpurity in their normal states intoarapidly flowing liquid of a suitable specific gravity in order toimmerse them so as to cause the impurity to separate from the grain byflotation, and

separately withdrawing the grain and im-.

purity so separated.

5. The method of purifying normal wheat of its associated green garlic,comprising, dropping the grain and lts garlic impurity.

in their normal states centrally ofand onto a centrifugally flowingliquid of a suitable specific gravity in order to immerse them so as tocause the impurity to separate from the grain by flotation, andseparately with drawing the grain and impurity so sepa rated. v

6. In the art of purifying normal wheat of its associated green garlic,the process comprising, separating the green impurity from the normalgrain by differences in theirspecific gravities.

7. In the art of purifying normal wheat of its associated green garlic,the process comprising, separating the green impurity from the normalgrain by differences in their specific gravities, by immersing the samein a liquid of. suitable specific gravity so as to cause'the impurity toseparate from the grain by flotation.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature this 10th day of May, 1919; V

JOHN GASKILL.

